From the Associated Press: Second-graders who can’t tie shoes or zip jackets. Four-year-olds in Pull-Ups diapers. Five-year-olds in strollers. Teens and preteens befuddled by can openers and ice-cube trays. College kids who’ve never done laundry, taken a bus alone or addressed an envelope. Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? And do we have only… Continue reading “Nincompoop generation?”
Category: Thinking Allowed
Book Review: “Proust and the Squid”
…the goal of reading is to go beyond the author’s ideas to thoughts that are increasingly autonomous, transformative, and ultimately independent of the written text. … The experience of reading is not so much an end in itself as it is our best vehicle to a transformed mind, and, literally and figuratively, to a changed… Continue reading Book Review: “Proust and the Squid”
“Lebanon and the End Times”
The current conflict between Israel and Lebanon should provoke some serious thought about “end times”…but maybe not the ones you normally think about when you hear that term.
An Artistic Approach to Fighting Crime
Wherein is proposed a couple of dubious solutions for highspeed freeway chases.
Whiplashed by the Throes of Creativity
A rather tedious monograph about the origins of creativity, with a peripheral reference to monsters drawn by kids.
Risky Business
You don’t stop taking risks because you get old, You get old because you stop taking risks. T-shirt in Lake Tahoe ski rental shop This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find… Continue reading Risky Business
Book Review: “The Devil’s Highway”
In May, 2001 25 men and one boy set out across the Sonoran Desert, determined to cross into southern Arizona, between Yuma and Nogales, from their native Mexico. Crossing into the US was easy; finding their way to civilization was deadly. Fourteen of them perished in the attempt. Luis Alberto Urrea reconstructs the details of… Continue reading Book Review: “The Devil’s Highway”
Think your job is tough?
I walked outside a few minutes ago to check the mail, just in time to see an Animal Control truck pull up to a house directly across the street. The driver, a slightly-built blond female, jumped out of the truck, carrying a noose-on-a-stick, and made a beeline (dogline? canineline?) for what appeared to be a… Continue reading Think your job is tough?